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Anne Zieger is veteran healthcare editor and analyst with 25 years of industry experience. Zieger formerly served as editor-in-chief of FierceHealthcare.com and her commentaries have appeared in dozens of international business publications, including Forbes, Business Week and Information Week. She has also contributed content to hundreds of healthcare and health IT organizations, including several Fortune 500 companies. She can be reached at @ziegerhealth or www.ziegerhealthcare.com.

The Department of Defense and VA have decided to change the way they integrate their two EMRs, in an effort they say will lower the cost and speed the pace of interoperating. The new approach is expected to offer at least partial functionality by 2014, rather than forcing the two agencies to wait until 2017, reports FederalNewsRadio.com.

Rather than sticking to their current course, which involves a massive effort to integrate their respective EMRs into a single system, health IT leaders will attempt to make more short term progress.

To date, the DoD and VA have been working on common requirements and data standards and developing a shared enterprise service bus, all in the service of creating a single system. Agency leaders had estimated that the existing project would cost $4 billion.

The new plan, while keeping the larger goal of integrating by 2017, will include efforts to use existing solutions to get to interoperability quickly. Leaders expect their new direction to be considerably cheaper.

By the end of this year, the two departments will begin sharing a common UI, with the rollout beginning in seven DoD and VA wounded warrior polytrauma centers. Then, by 2014, the VA and DoD expect to be exchanging seven types of critical data, including lab results, clinical notes and allergies. The VA and DoD will accomplish this by standardizing the day their systems currently use, the VA’s chief information officer told FederalNewsRadio.com.

Another key component of the two agencies’ efforts is establishing a common system for identity management. The identity management system is drawing on the massive Defense Manpower Data Center storehouse of personnel informaton operated by the DoD.